Breakdown: Android G1, iPhone share little in common

There are two aspects of software: the first party tools and foundation built by Google or Apple, and the third party software created by other developers. In terms of first party software, Apple is now at release 2.1 after having put out regular updates nearly once a month over the last year and a few months. Google will be delivering 1.0 next month, and has a spottier record of deploying software updates, with only two public releases of its SDK since announcing Android a year ago. Apple released its SDK after the Android announcement and put out a dozen updates since.

Android has demonstrated some unique features yet missing on the iPhone, including support for displaying Street Views within the Maps application and MMS picture messaging. The most obvious departure between the two in terms of software is that Android presents the same desktop PC interface found on Windows Mobile and Linux devices, while the iPhone was custom designed around a new mobile multitouch set of simplified human interface guidelines. Google's interface doesn't follow a standard set of guidelines, and Android Market doesn't yet police any restrictions on third parties the way Apple does, making the Market place more of a free-for-all from the onset.

The G1 and iPhone share a few components, such as similar open source foundations, including SQLite and WebKit. This means the two will benefit each other as shared technology contributions simmered together. The G1's browser, called Chrome Lite, really has more in common with the iPhone's mobile Safari and the WebKit browser pioneered by Nokia. Google's G1 browser therefore has the same rendering accuracy of the iPhone's Safari, although it lacks features like pinch to zoom, because neither the G1 nor Android support multitouch.

A major software difference between the G1 and iPhone relates to third party security. Apple has set up a secure software distribution system for third party developers that protects their interests through FairPlay DRM in exchange for cheap software titles for users with the implicit understanding that software from the iPhone App Store won't deliver spyware, adware, or other malicious payloads, and will follow Apple's guidelines for usability, quality, consistency, and performance. The same cannot yet be said for Google, which plans to deliver software without any certificate checks, quality assurance, nor any way to stop a virus outbreak once malicious coders discover that Android users are wide open targets for exploitation.

The other side of the same coin is that the iPhone's several million installed base is creating its own weather in software demand, resulting in tens of millions of revenue pouring upon third party iPhone developers each month. That's a huge incentive to develop new titles that stand out and to port over existing titles from other mobile platforms, where piracy prevents developers from making much in exchange for their work. While Google has future plans to deliver paid software, there is currently no installed base of Android users and no iPod surrogate to fuel confidence in the market for Google software. This risks leaving Android Market full of placeholder software that nags for paid upgrades; promising titles that lack getting the refinement and updates they need due to a lack of profit incentive; both malicious and just incompetent malware; and other problems Apple has worked diligently to address.

One last comparison between the G1's Android platform and the iPhone is that Apple's SDK is based up on Mac OS X's Cocoa and familiar to the installed base of Mac developers. Interest in the iPhone is now great enough to have shifted things to the point where iPhone development is spilling over into increased interest in the Mac platform. Android is often linked with Linux as a platform, but its use of the Linux kernel is as irrelevant as the iPhone and Mac's use of BSD. The real platform of Android software developers is Java, although Android phones can't directly run existing Java ME apps. Google's Android platform does allow mobile Java developers to port much of their code into the unique non-Java bytecode used by Android.

Apart from hardware and software differences, the G1 and iPhone also have significantly different services; while the iPhone integrates with iTunes for mobile apps, music, video, podcasts, cloud sync, and desktop integration, the G1 connects to Android Market for software, Amazon for music sales, and syncs data directly with Google. The G1 currently provides no desktop PC sync nor any Exchange Server sync support, but does offer Google's own cloud as an alternative service to push email, contacts, and calendar updates to the phone.

The Amazon MP3 store, like Apple's WiFi iTunes Store, is only download friendly over WiFi, not 3G, and does not support any video downloads or movie rentals. In terms of media support, the G1 handles the same codecs as the iPhone (MP3 and AAC audio; H.264 and MPEG4/H.263 video) although the G1 also supports playback of OGG, WMA, and Real audio (but not FairPlay-protected iTunes audio or video content, which Apple will not license to third parties).

The G1 provides no bundled general video player application nor video recording features; the only way to watch video is from YouTube. Third-party video players will be available from the Android Market.

A final difference related to service is that T-Mobile limits users to 1GB of data over 3G per month, at which point they may be choked off to 50Kps dialup or GPRS-level access speeds, according to the fine print on the carrier's web [this policy appears to have been taken back]. AT&T offers all the 3G you can find. With T-Mobile's limited 3G coverage, that might not affect most G1 users, who will be forced stick to WiFi as much as possible.

This is not the Android you were looking for

Overall, the G1 offers a debut that delivers more serious limitations than the iPhone did. It's SIM locked to T-Mobile, proving that pure ideology is no match for mobile provider demands. The company says it will unlock phones after three months of service, but the phone will only ever be usable on T-Mobile's network for 3G in the US; GSM and EDGE will work on other carriers worldwide.

Android Market promises a "more free" development environment, but the yawning debut of the G1 means that there won't be an Android installed base anywhere approaching the iPhone for well off into the future when better Android phones appear. By then, the iPhone market will have grown by additional leaps and bounds. Google is counting on a lack of restrictions to motivate developers to join its platform, but the real motivator in a Capitalist society is revenue, something that Google hasn't lined up yet in its store, and something the small number of G1 adopters won't be stoking on their own. Additionally, the security problems Google is simply hoping won't exist will undoubtedly come to haunt the platform.

Okay article, very much an "advocate" article rather than an unbiased comparison though. A more even handed approach (while avoiding the tepid "everything is equal" approach of other tech journalists), would be preferable.

One minor point:

You say by means of comparison, that the G1 has 6 buttons to the iPhone's 1.

But while I haven't held one in my hand, all the pictures of the G1 show only 5 buttons unless you are counting the trackball twice, once as a trackball and once as a button. There could also be buttons on the side or back that at not visible in pictures of the G1, but then if you are going to include them, you have to admit that the iPhone has a few more than "1" as well.

These kind of niggly little points, sprinkled throughout the "Prince McClean articles" just come across as deceitful.

Why even go there when it just makes people suspicious of everything else you have stated, and doesn't really add much to the argument?

First, take off the rose-colored glasses. Are people suddenly forgetting the (hard) 5g lmit of AT&T's data plan?

Furthermore, as is mentioned on the second page, MultiTouch is an Apple patented technology. I can't really imagine such core incentive technology being licensed to competitors. As such, it is unlikely that "...developers will have to roll their own [multitouch] for any subsequent Android phones that might support this in hardware"; if the technology is Apple owned, it isn't going to be on the Android platform.

Multitouch is nice, but there are MANY other human interface paradigms.

Okay article, very much an "advocate" article rather than an unbiased comparison though. A more even handed approach (while avoiding the tepid "everything is equal" approach of other tech journalists), would be preferable.

One minor point:

You say by means of comparison, that the G1 has 6 buttons to the iPhone's 1.

But while I haven't held one in my hand, all the pictures of the G1 show only 5 buttons unless you are counting the trackball twice, once as a trackball and once as a button. There could also be buttons on the side or back that at not visible in pictures of the G1, but then if you are going to include them, you have to admit that the iPhone has a few more than "1" as well.

These kind of niggly little points, sprinkled throughout the "Prince McClean articles" just come across as deceitful.

Why even go there when it just makes people suspicious of everything else you have stated, and doesn't really add much to the argument?

If you are going to get picky you should state that the G1 has way more than 6 buttons as it has a full keyboard too. LOL

While I agree that in the comparison the iPhone still looks the better phone, I think it would be wrong to ignore it and not compare the two. Apple has taken there popularity and made people aware of what their phone could become, but people also get board of their mobiles and regularly change them. Apple only has 1 phone and the G1 is just the first of what could be many phones using the Andoid platform. People will start to look more at Windows Mobile based phones as well.

As for the software produced by other developers for the platform, I've considered developing something for the iPhone but then think: What if Apple reject it? And why should Apple's get to take part of the revenue for what I made?

Then there's the issue of the App Store. iTunes is great for selling music as people generally know what they want when they go their. But with Apps people have to learn about your app on the store. What do you do if what you make ends up on page 6 of its category, how many people will see it their? The iPhone attracted a lot of developers but that also means a lot of crap being published, and a lot of duplicate products not to mention a lot of competition for anyone wanting to write something.

This article seems more designed to reassure iPhone owners than to provide real analysis of Android's potential. "Don't worry! Everything's going to be okay. The Big Bad Android isn't going to get you." The reality is that Android, if not now, then in later versions, provides real competition, and this is a GOOD thing. I'm not a big fan of Apple products -- yes, I've tried the Mac and it doesn't do what I need to do, and I've got an iPod, but I rarely use it -- but I do own an iPhone and it's great. That said, in 2 years, when my phone upgrade becomes available, I'll be looking at all of the options. Phones are different from computers. Every 2 years you get the option to jump platforms with no penalty. If Apple continues their closed-ness with regard to apps, Android in 2 years may be a real threat. I and many other iPhone owners have no particular affection for Apple. We'll just use whatever provides the most functionality when the times come to renew our plan. Apple will never make a major dent in the market if they rely on fanboys for sales rather than regular consumers.

First, take off the rose-colored glasses. Are people suddenly forgetting the (hard) 5g lmit of AT&T's data plan? .

i suppose you could say that At&t have defined a limit where T-Mobile are letting you sign up for a G1 and have already changed their minds once on the data limits and have been vague about what you are going to got going forward.

From Pc World
A day after the launch of the much-anticipated Google Android phonefrom T-Mobile, the Web has been buzzing with complaints about the 1GB cap on the data usage of the phone. In response T-Mobile has moved swiftly and changed its mind and lifted the cap on the G1's monthly data plan. The G1 now has no data cap and is unlimited.

Even though 1GB of data usage might be enough for your monthly email usage, early adopters will welcome the 'unlimited' usage plan for the G1 as they are prone to use more of the data-intensive features of the phone, such as GPS-assisted maps, Web browsing, viewing YouTube videos or sharing pictures taken with the phone's 3.2 megapixel camera.

This is quite a smart and fast move from T-Mobile and is set to calm down all of those who were appalled by the network's decision to cap data usage. Nevertheless, the "unlimited" usage comes with its downsides as well.

T-Mobile introduced together with the "unlimited" data plan a (most certainly annoying) bandwidth metering (slowing) function on its network, similar to what Comcast will use for its Internet users after the FCC trial.

"We reserve the right to temporarily reduce data throughput for a small fraction of our customers who have excessive or disproportionate usage that interferes with our network performance or our ability to provide quality service to all of our customers," said a statement from T-Mobile for NY Times.

As G1 will be available on Oct 22nd, T-Mobile is still reviewing the data plans for the Android-powered phone, so a final decision should come soon.

First, take off the rose-colored glasses. Are people suddenly forgetting the (hard) 5g lmit of AT&T's data plan?

It's not hard, it's soft. AT&T has the via the contractual agreement to drop you if you are abusing their network, but I've gone well over 5GB with my Sierra USB card and haven't even received a a notice or seen any throttling.